 Hello and welcome to the fix. I'm Michael Walker. I'm Aaron Bassani and we've got many a story for you today too many stories for stories We're not going to tell you what they are yet. We're just going to start with the first story, which is about Carillion The big company you've never heard of until today Carillion is a classic PFI company That means a company a private company that the state pays to provide public services including building giant infrastructure projects So this was a company that the state had been paying to build hospitals that it pays to provide school dinners And that it pays to prison guards, etc. Things like that Cleaning cleaning catering and construction. Yeah, so three C's instead of a school employing someone directly The government will pay Carillion to provide the school dinner The left has a standard critique of this kind of business and the critique normally goes that What's happened here is the private company try and cut costs basically by taking it out on the workers So they'll attack workers rights and that will mean that they can give those school dinners for slightly cheaper than the state would have Been able to because they cut union rights and it's the workers. Yeah, the other critique tends to be Which is justified is that because of close relationships between these particular companies and the government Company will spend a certain amount of money on building a hospital And they'll get loads more back in the future from the state and this is PFI right this is PFI So I know we're a really cushy deal, but this is the industry they're in this is the business model They would have been working bit PFI is a bit like imagine you have No money You have no deposit and you can get a half a million pound flat as a mortgage and you go This is amazing I've just moved into a wonderful big flat and it turns out actually you have to pay one and a half million for a half million Pound asset over 40 years. That's a bit like PFI basically, which means sooner or later the chickens come home to roost But it normally the chickens would come home to roost for the government this time something different has happened because Carillion far from making Supernormal profits has gone bust super normal Supernormal that was a real Trumpism super normal. No, that's actually a I'm a really super normal guy Technical word that you have in neoclassical economics. Yeah, super normal. Okay. Yeah, I thought extraordinary but fine Normal profit. Well, this is for different different conversation If you want to know different thing normal profit and super normal we need James Butler The reason Carillion has gone out of business is because they took on basically too many different contracts Which they couldn't really manage and they went way over cost and This company from today no longer exists. It's been completely liquidated Which leaves the government in difficult position because there are hospitals With no one who's there to finish them. They were a big Contractor in HS to so there now needs to be different companies to go forward with HS to Well, we don't know the details, right? There's gonna be there's a cut There's literally a cobra meeting right now. I think addressing all of this. Yeah, but what I'm saying is that that's the problem Yeah, I mean they might give a passion fusion to finish excellent contracts or something. We don't know, right? Well, they've said there's not much more. There's no more money go They're not going to save the company so someone else has to take on these different essential services that have been subcontracted out to a private company But Michael, what's the big why is this so different? Why why is this a story? Why is this a story? Basically because you had a private company that was taking on the provision of essential services Someone's got to provide those essential services Also, this company employs 20,000 people in Britain 43,000 people across the world who are going to be worried about their pensions Because this company is a billion pounds in debt and 600 million pounds in a pension deficit. That means the amount it owes to its workers Is 600 million pounds more than it has set aside to pay those workers So the government is going to have to step in and clear up this mess You Aaron know, I've been looking at certain people who have been Having quite a good time when it comes to the downfall of Korea. Who is this working out in the best interest for? Well, Michael made a very good point, which is that Korean hasn't been bailed out so to speak so the losers We haven't seen a socializing of the losses and a privatizing of the gains many shareholders and Korean have also lost out pension funds and whatnot But there are actually some big winners some of which is the senior Korean management, but actually more surprisingly perhaps our hedge funds So if you see in the times today, we know that people that I think we've got we can go to the times 200 million pound potentially it's between 80 and 200 million pounds The hedge funds are made from the short selling of Korean shares now. They've been doing this for several years They've been short selling Korean shares because they've realized there are problems on the way for several years And yet the government didn't seem to know the government was still awarding them contracts the the There were three profit warnings for Korean over the course the last year During that time the government still awarded two billion pounds worth of public sector contracts So more than being outraged at all this is a emblematic of neoliberalism for profit production Even if you believe in markets even if you believe in the power privatization clearly the government's been massively Negligent and the people who've won are people like black rock where by the way George Osborne last year and six hundred fifty thousand pounds I think we should have that coming up as well in a second. It's in the Guardian Do we have that coming up black rock? No, I think that probably is that you know my eyes are so bad. I have no idea that was about short selling short selling regardless anyway, I was sitting about George Osborne paid six hundred fifty thousand pounds last year and Black Rock or one of the senior players in terms of short-selling it you want to say quickly what short-selling is Well short-selling is when a private like a hedge fund or a private financial company bets against a company So they think the share price for Korean is going to go down because they've seen some profit warnings Or they've seen that they don't think this business model really works and They bet against the company. So if the share price goes down they they win It's basically a complicated thing of borrowing shares and selling them on but that's the the gist of it and Amid this whole shit sandwich of senior management doing very well shareholders losing out workers losing out end users losing out taxpayer losing out Amid all of this the CEO of Corillian was given a CBE for businesses to service in 2014 He was on a government board between 2011 and 2016. I think overseeing. What was it something to do with? Responsible business It's quite ironic, but also tragic responsible business So this shyster has made plenty of money and the people that were short selling The shares on this company have made plenty of money perhaps most galling of all is that this gentleman again Philip green It's not the same Philip green. He's still a parasitical money-grabbing tick, but it's not the same Philip green in 2015 He was a signatory of a letter which was co-signed by a hundred captains of industry leaders of business on the front page the Telegraph saying that people should vote Tory and that Labour meant More job losses less growth and economy which didn't work for most people Well that in fact is precisely what Corillian is. It was led by that man of that liar And because of his ineptitude and because of the government's negligence the only people have won out from today who are Drinking champagne and the streets the city of London other hedge funds people that work for Corillian and companies like it They're worrying about the next paycheck where they can meet their mortgage payments where they can feed their kids That's where Britain is in 2017 and that's why we need to fundamentally transform how we run our economy Mmm, and how would that transformation it take place what we were placing companies with Corillian with? Well, I think we're very lucky in our media. We want to announce The launch of the Paul Mason column today if you go to our media column You can see a great article by Paul and precisely this and the final couple of paragraphs, you know, he's quite He's quite kind to markets He says you don't necessarily need to socialize with stuff. You don't need a massive I would actually disagree with some of that But he seems to think that a lot of this is down simply to the misalignment of incentives In the market sector and the way this is done is that you are effectively Incentivising poor performance from companies like Corillian and you're incentivizing their management teams like mr. Phillip Green CBE to be very myopic and short-term So to put that in super simple terms, yeah Eva so one option which you haven't mentioned is just that you bring this all in-house So instead of nationalize it instead of giving contracts to private companies to build the hospital and to give the school dinners out You bring that into public ownership, which in terms of school dinners should definitely happen I mean they should get especially for workers, right? It's because it's much better to work for the school that you work in and to work for a company Which is based in a different city and which is Committed to trying to undercut your way all the outsourcing stuff should be brought back in house Yeah, we agree with that but in terms of the big infrastructure problem infrastructure projects One option is to nationalize it the other is to make sure there's proper transparency So that we don't the government doesn't give up contracts to businesses who are Fundamentally about to co-bust because of mismanagement by CEOs whose incentives are misaligned because they can make massive Personal gain 160,000 pounds a year was it six hundred sixty million. I don't know. Anyway, this dude's making loads of money I think you're getting views of George Osborne a black rock. No, no, no He was on six hundred fifty seven the CEO of his 17 job making shed loads of money Yeah, until and their bonuses were completely inoculated from the performance of the company. I mean only only politicians and the leaders of these major weird oak and glomerate Sodexo Capita Circo G4S nobody knows, you know G4S. You think they work with prisoners. They lock people up They work at security guards and then you find out that they're they're cleaning the arse of donkeys at the local animal sanctuary they seems to do everything and Yeah, there are often very weird incentives with the management of these companies next story next story Well, this is a really I enjoyed this one so much now you might be Thinking you know you hear every day Nick Clegg, Alistair Campbell, Andrew Adonis the usual suspects They won't have it. They want a second referendum. They will not accept Brexit and the will of the people as of last Well, actually June 2016 now, isn't it? It's almost 18 months ago But now we know an interesting man has joined their ranks one Nigel Farage shocked the world last week when he said He wants a second referendum on Britain leaving the EU This for certain is That the Clegg's the Blair's the Adonis's Will never ever ever give up they will go on whinging and whining and moaning all the way through this process so maybe Just maybe I'm reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on because on EU membership The whole thing. Yes, of course Now subsequently mr. Farage said that he'd been Misunderstood that he doesn't think there should be a second referendum despite using literally that exact word should He was worried that there'll be another referendum. He wants his fellow Brexiteers to be prepared But he's very clear in the excerpt right he's saying there should be a second referendum now go and Google the word should It will tell you obligation Duty something which is correct to pursue So should means that he wants one now. Why would Nigel Farage want another referendum? What do you think well the mainstream the mainstream opinion about this is basically that Nigel Farage is Feeling a bit down because he doesn't have enough attention anymore obviously the campaign to leave the EU was what made his career Now we're leaving he doesn't really have That much to talk about on TV. He had put a lot of he'd bet a lot of bet a lot on the success of Steve Bannon Basically, he'd been speaking at Steve Bannon rallies and for that What was the name of the Pido candidate for the Roy Moore? Roy Moore Pido or anyway, he I mean, I don't think Roy Moore is gonna sue us, but fine There are certain he dated underage girls and was banned from anyway, that doesn't matter Anyway, because of Steve Bannon's fall from grace He was still with the right wing of the Trump project Nigel has lost political capital in the United States. He needs something to do in Britain Which means we need another referendum. Yeah, but Aaron you have a more controversial deeper explanation This is actually bigger than Farage's ego Let's go now to surprisingly because Nigel Farage is not much to be on Twitter. Welcome to my life Nigel Go on to Let's see a video from Nigel's Twitter feed and I think this begins to help us construct a Narrative as to why he's now become a The last thing I've ever wanted is another referendum on this issue, but I began to realize since Monday When I went to meet mr. Barnier that it's just not as simple as that Because my pessimism in that meeting with Barnier realizing he's not going to give us a good deal was of course backed up By the three leading British businessman who went to see him yesterday We are not going to be offered a grown-up rounded trade and services deal Whatever gets put to Parliament is now. I think likely to be rejected Even if there was a majority in Parliament that would have voted for Brexit before the general election in June now There are actually more Tory rebels who would vote against their government on this then there are Labour MPs who would defy their own side. I I fear That Parliament will reject any deal and I fear the civil Old Nigel well So he fears a lot of things and the basis of which is that he doesn't think that we'll get a particularly favorable trade deal If you again look on Nigel's Twitter feed I think early last week he met Michelle Barnier in Brussels and He came out of that meeting saying that he was really appalled at no trade deal being on the table Now leaving the EU Can be quite easy it can be quite simple I don't know I don't want to trigger anybody here don't upset anybody here But it could be but we would have to stay in the single market There are plenty of people in the single market in the European economic area or the European free trade area like Switzerland like Norway All these countries that forage was saying we could be just like We could do that But then we wouldn't be able to set our own Trade deals we wouldn't be a wheel and deal in the world and we wouldn't be able to have migration caps Which let's be honest is what forage and many people who voted for Brexit. That's what they want So we can't do that So what the likes of forage want instead is a Canadian style trade deal with the EU Which means no tariffs and no barriers on trade between Britain and the EU and let's cut that video with David Davis I think we may have it where he talks about a Canada plus plus plus plus plus deal If the basic deal I'm being very crude about this but is Canada plus the city or something like Canada plus plus plus is Well, probably you will be one more putting it But it's plus plus plus is a difficult aren't they because for instance the French want to steal as much of the cities They possibly can so the fact that they can I wouldn't use that word. That's your word. That's my word Canada plus plus plus plus plus so There's a there's a bit of an issue here because what they want is they want a Canada style deal No tariffs no barriers a square Canada to the power of 15, but they want basically Tariff free access to the European market, but they also want passporting rights for the city But they also want to set migration caps, but they also want to have independent Trade policy of the rest of the world then you can't have all of this And so what forage and bear in mind I just forage is only job outside of politics is working as a commodities trader in the City of London. His concern is that we could have a Canada style deal again Very doable, but London will lose passporting rights. Now. What does that mean? It would mean that London fundamentally would be at a distinct advantage to Frankfurt to Paris to Dublin in terms of financial services more or less I think it would probably be the end of London as a global financial hub now I think this question should be posed to Nigel forage If we leave the EU, but it means that London doesn't have passporting rights and it loses its preeminence as a financial City Would you rather be in or out? And I think forage is beginning to put his cards on the table. He'd rather be in the EU So for 20 years this man has been mouthing off about leaving this club this kleptocratic phony elite Driven organization it turns out he never had a fucking plan It turns out he doesn't know what happens next and it turns out he has no Contingencies if we can't have our cake and eat it whether you're Brexit whether you remain Leave this lying phony where he belongs and that's in 2016 We're gonna go to a break Great over the last ten years things have really changed But for all the darkness every cause has an effect For all the talk of change the present moment is really one of crisis a crisis of democratic representation of identity a Climate crisis of a failing economic model, which isn't working for most people We can't have a media that's beholden to advertisers or the political ambitions of oligarchs, which is why in 2013 We founded Navara media unlike corporate media. We are funded by our subscribers There's no tax avoiders. There's no oil money and there's no lords what we're creating is media for you Which quite simply you make possible looking to raise? £40,000 that will allow us to not only keep on paying our contributors But give them a little bit more as well as keep our studio and take our fantastic Navara events nationwide to help us get there Go to support not Navara media comm and give a one-off donation or even better sign up for a subscription We've already achieved so much, but the truth is we've barely started It wouldn't be a it wouldn't be a fix if we didn't talk about Donald Trump And of course last week as you're probably already aware. Maybe you heard about this Michael Yeah, I did the Donald referred to a bunch of countries as shit-hole countries. He was referring to Primarily to countries who now send lots of immigrants to immigrants rather to the US This was in a bipartisan meeting including Democrats And reports have said that Trump said during that meeting. Why are we having all and I quote? Why are we having all these people from these shit-hole countries come here? And he followed by saying why don't we have more people coming from countries like Norway? Accounts suggest that when Mr. Trump was told that the largest group of immigrants with the status they were discussing which is temporary protected status He was told they were primarily from El Salvador from Honduras and from Haiti the president responded Haitians do we need more Haitians? Do we need more Haitians? So yeah, this was a bit strange and it kicked off a Strange debate around a president that would have the temerity to use the word shit-hole in office. What do you think Michael? Well, I mean obviously it's completely outrageous and obviously the difference between Norway and the countries He's talking about is the race of the people that come from them In terms of the practical input of what he's saying. I mean it is standard conservative discourse that Conservatives tend to want people from certain come countries for certain unsaid reasons I mean even in the EU debate. There was a lot of talk of why don't we get more people from Australia and America unless people from Eastern Europe? So I do think that even within the European thing. They'll say French and German doctors. They don't say Romanian Baristas in just it. We've just as much right to be here under the current framework implicit in a lot of what for Raj says is we've got no problems with Australians and French Romanians I say implicit so don't sue me At this point, I'm pretty sure he probably has explicitly said it. Yeah, he probably has What do you think I? Think that and this made people think maybe I'm being you know rude. I think Donald Trump maybe has early stage Dementia Because having seen people like this cut the occasional outburst. There's sort of the speech patterns He has I think it's possible and I'm saying this for a couple of reasons We now know that Ronald Reagan as early as 1984 Was suffering from dementia his son was on record as saying that From early in 1984. You know what uranium is right? It's think all nuclear weapons and other things like lots of things are done But it was only documented from the early 1990s and then furthermore We know that as people live longer Dementia and Alzheimer's and I'm sorry for the team here. I've actually moved around things a little bit Dementia and Alzheimer's are becoming more of a health risk. It's now the leading killer in England on Wales I think it's 6th in the United States. So in the early 20th century Most people died from pneumonia bronchitis infections perkylosis diphtheria. Okay today It's cancer heart disease Hopefully as our health care gets even better which it won't by the way in the near liberalism But if we win it will do more and more people will be suffering and dying from dementia and Alzheimer's Okay, so this is a very real topic because more and more people will have it But I think in the case of Trump in particular This is an issue because the president has the nuclear codes. They have huge gender-setting powers If you actually watch what he's saying, I mean, it's it's a different guy to the the man we even saw 10 15 years ago There's a few examples. I've pulled up and we're gonna go to them now Does this seem to you like a man who's in full control of his faculties? You know what uranium is right? It's thing called nuclear weapons and other things like lots of things are done with uranium Including some bad things Professor and scientist and engineer dr. John Trump at MIT Good good genes very good genes. Okay, very smart the Wharton School of Finance very good very smart You know if you're a conservative Republican if I were a liberal if like okay if I ran as a liberal Democrat they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world. It's true but when you're a conservative Republican they Try oh do they do a number that's why I always thought of went to Wharton was a good student went there went There did this built before yeah, I have to give my like credentials all the time Yes, there's this thing. I mean you're you're into this. I know this They're like he has the sort of register of a fourth grader and that makes him the arch populist Except the people in the background look quite worried there. Yeah, I mean, I think that went too far If you go to YouTube and you put Donald Trump 1980 1990 1995 He's actually I mean people might disagree with this. I think it's quite a Articular eloquent person who still has a populist register, but he can't Form full sentences for a very long time. He's been a white supremacist, but now he's a white supremacist who seems to have less Relationship to reality Yeah, and he but just the way he talks seems to be changing and you know, he's just had this medical I think two days ago There but it's entirely sort of arbitrary, you know the the only details that are released are at the behest of the president So we don't know on a bunch of things what's going on and like I say look Reagan had Alzheimer's in the fun Is the Cold War? Imagine if Trump had something similar whilst he was trying to take on the evil Empire of the Soviet Union It is a worry because the like I say so much American foreign policy and its competencies Especially nuclear weapons are concentrated in the in the powers of one man And it's concerning I mean it is a big worry especially with the nuclear button I think one conclusion though is it's It ultimately doesn't matter whether he does or whether he doesn't because to get rid of this is this is being discussed a lot in America at the moment, especially because of the book by Michael wool I think with good reason made him sound yeah off the chain But to get rid of someone on the grounds of not being fit for office you need At least a majority of the cabinet of the people he's appointed You need a majority of both houses of Congress. I mean it's it's not going to happen And I think what's relevant here as well is that he hasn't deteriorated since he was elected So he has a democratic mandate. Yeah as someone who speaks and acts like this So I don't know how far that diagnosis would get us. I want to be clear. I'm not trying to stigmatize this stuff It's gonna happen to more and more people in fact my genome apparently I'm quite disposed to getting out so I'm as they get older, but it's a consideration people living longer And if we're gonna have more and you know more and more people in public office In older age, which is going to happen because all of society is aging Okay in 19 I think in 1916 if you were born you would have one in 100 chance of reaching 100 years old today. You have a one in three chance of reaching 100 years old So yeah, we've got this thing up here about Alzheimer's in the US It's the sixth reason called the cause of death in US. It's going up all the time So I'm not trying to stigmatize it. This is a genuine issue And actually I think with Trump look at him over time and I think it's kind of pretty obvious what's going on There's a many things going on, but I think that probably is one of them. I think it's a yeah We're gonna end on good news Go which is rarity rarity. Oh, we get quite a lot. Oh, we do. Yeah, don't we this is the NEC elections The left slate the momentum slate has won Yasmin Da John Lansman and Rachel Garnum will enter the NEC tomorrow Hopefully to democratize the party Uh, this wasn't met by joy from all quarters of British society, especially the British Establishment, so I think we're going to get up the evening standard headline Corbyn's Red Army's takeover Is takeover complete. Yeah Uh This is bizarre on a number of levels, but obviously George Osborne can't have the headline I was the chancellor when Batshit Carillion was given loads of government contracts when even hedge funds are shorting it. Yeah, I can't have that as the front page, right? But it's also not just a distraction. I think this is going to become increasingly A dominant media narrative one that labor of revolutionaries and extremists when We really just want to revert privatization fund the NHS process properly and do it by taxing the rich or very reasonable Moderate demands in the context of neoliberalism though Revolutionary Yeah, this is uh, this is our problem. Bernie sander's style revolution. Yeah, not 1917 style revolution preferably not Preferably not preferably not. I'd rather have central heating rather than, you know Oh, I agree preferably not be involved in some But more importantly than that we are going to see more and more Uh, the establishment press try and give the impression that labor party is being overtaken by a doctrinaire bunch of people who are instilling discipline in basically Soviet Leninist fashion touchwood Well to some degree touchwood Because This is exactly what hasn't happened in the labor party. The left don't have total control, which is what kevin scofield said today 172 MPs voted against labor members to get rid of Corbyn in 2016 172 They're still there. They're still the majority of the plp. They're not all there Five or six have sort of like resigned at the last election, but no one's been de-selected. No one's been disciplined penis penis penis or john woodcock So that's his real name actually john woodcock. Uh, he's still there And he's he's gonna he's the only one I really want to go now. So we've lost him. We've lost two hours We lost quite a few Well, what john woodcock said jamie reid before the last general election was that if labor win if labor get The most votes in the most seats. Yeah, he will block jeremy corbyn becoming prime minister Yeah in a party where the left had total control would that man still have a job? Absolutely not. He's an idiot. Absolutely. John woodcock is an unalloyed idiot Some and dank shook scorn a lot of bad people have gone, you know, we have there's lots of reasons to be happy There are lots of reasons to be happy, but The party has not been nearly democratized enough and what we will see over and over again is that the centrist MPs Their biggest defense against democratization or the biggest block they'll pose to democratization Is their friends in the mainstream media who they say if you pass any reforms which threaten our jobs for life We're going to go and give a lot of quotes to the evening standard Saying that the labor party has become a revolutionary party, uh, which is completely unwelcoming of anyone who doesn't want xyz You know how many I mean, so we've got these it was it was jasmine John lansman and he was that kind of Rachel Garnham. Rachel Garnham. They all got an excessive 60 000 votes I think he has been got 67 000 John lansman got 65 000 yes, how many members the conservative party has the whole party It has about 70 000 So slightly under maybe right so more or less John lansman might have won more votes than there are members of the conservative party sort of frame this as Uh, a kind of a hostile takeover by a small number of people I mean it literally couldn't be further from the truth. This is a mass membership organization actually which has never seen these levels in modern history of such level, you know such high participation, so But that's why you know when the membership is still massively underrepresented in every part of the party including the nc But that's why when progress MPs or whatever go to complain about this on bbc daily politics bbc daily politics aren't saying well Why are you saying this? It's because you want a job for life You know the establishment fits into a number of places media politics and so on And they all want to inoculate politics more generally from this idea that Ordinary people can get involved and can change the country but uh We've gone one step towards a democrat one more step towards a democrat labor party one more step between Bursting that bubble in west minster that tries to keep ordinary people out So well done john well done rachel and well done jasmine. I think that's all for us today It is we've got a tisky south coming this week. I believe Yeah, hopefully yeah, we'll work that out. We'll work it out. Uh, see you next week. See you next monday. Bye